Libya votes show House divided

The House delivered a surprising split decision on Libya Friday: Voting against authorizing the use of American forces there and then, an hour later, refusing to limit funding for the mission.

In essence, the House decided that it will neither endorse nor totally reject American intervention in Libya.

Story Continued Below

It appears that a last-minute White House lobbying effort to stave off Democratic defections worked — at least on the spending-limitation bill. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked House Democrats to back their president in a closed-door meeting in the Capitol on Thursday, and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon summoned a small group of liberals to the Situation Room at 7 a.m. Friday for a classified briefing that may have influenced a handful of votes.

Still, the House rejection of a one-year authorization of the use of force in Libya earlier Friday represented the most serious congressional challenge to the president’s war-making authority in more than a decade. It was a symbolic vote, but one that was felt on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

“We are disappointed by that vote,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said between roll calls. “We think now is not the time to send the kind of mixed message that it sends when we are working with our allies to achieve the goals that we believe that are widely shared in Congress.”

And, he noted, the move won’t stop the U.S. involvement.

“This is one vote,” he said.

On that vote, the House rejected the one-year authorization of the use of force in Libya, written by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), on a 123-295 roll call. GOP leaders allowed it to come to the floor so that they could demonstrate President Barack Obama does not have the support of the House for the mission — and they did just that. Eight Republicans and 115 Democrats voted for the use of force, while 225 Republicans and 70 Democrats were opposed.

But the funding-limitation bill, which would have allowed only for non-hostile American support of the NATO-led mission, also failed, 180-238, with the overwhelming majority of Democrats and several dozen Republicans voting no.

Some Republican lawmakers said they didn’t want to vote for a funding cutoff with loopholes precisely because it amounted to an approval of some of the activities American enforces have undertaken since missiles were first fired into Libya in March.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told his colleagues that the bill’s construction would allow for a “limited support role” of the NATO-led mission but prohibit further American strikes.

Boehner made clear in a House floor speech before the second vote that he sought to find a balance that would allow the U.S. to meet its commitments to its allies without approving the use of American military power to strike inside Libya.